Female Mayor Takes Office In Albany

Jeanne Bonner

When Dorothy Hubbard takes the oath of office Monday, she will be Albany’s first female mayor. Albany was one of two major Georgia cities to elect female mayors last year.

Hubbard is a former city commissioner. She’s also a former educator. She worked for many years in administrative roles in higher education, retiring as assistant to the president of Albany State University.

And now she takes on another job: inspiring women.

“It’s been amazing to me, the number of women, young women especially, who have written or called to say, ‘Oh you’re such –‘ or texted me, by the way. I can text, too, at my age as a grandmother," she said in a phone interview. "They’ve said, ‘You’re a role model for me.’”

But she says her election is proof of more than just women’s progress.

“People are beginning to think that women can do great things, too," she said, adding, "I think that they [also] understand that men can be in supportive roles as well as women.”

Hubbard says as mayor she plans to tackle crime, economic development and blighted properties.

Voters in Savannah elected the city’s first female African-American mayor, Edna Jackson.